Dream On

In early 2000,a director named Peter Jackson took a decision that would change the way we look at an entire genre of cinema that was,until then,withering away slowly.

In early 2000,a director named Peter Jackson took a decision that would change the way we look at an entire genre of cinema that was,until then,withering away slowly. When Jackson decided to transfer the epic Lord of the Rings series onto celluloid,it paved the way for a whole slew of similar movies to hop on board the fantasy bandwagon and start raking in the big bucks.

Where Hollywood goes,Bollywood follows; and as per the usual time lag of a few years,were now seeing a bunch of big budget fantasy movies appear across the horizon. You might say it all started with Koi Mil Gaya in 2003,which flirted with the genre (as well as sci-fi) and the follow-up Krrish in 2006 (which was an all-out superhero flick). Last year gave two debacles Drona and Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic. This years addition to the stable of Bollywood fantasy movies is the lavishly made Aladin. We will also see Aao Wish Karein and Jaane Kahaan Se Aayi Hai being released soon.

Unfortunately for Bollywood,thats where the similarities end.

Unlike their Western counterparts,Bollywood fantasy movies have always been plagued by poor production values,a tepid response from critics and fans alike,and a slight inferiority complex as well.

One of the major setbacks is obviously the budget. Audiences expect a fantasy film to be extremely grand and larger than life. While LOTR and the Harry Potter series have had a productions budget of US $150 million each on an average,Indian filmmakers can barely afford one-tenth of the price. Sabu Cyril,who is the art director of Aladin and is also currently working on Robot,a sci-fi fantasy film in Tamil,agrees. I would say we are currently at the middle level. We really dont have that much budget for the special effects. Hong Kong is slightly above us but the USA is far above us. But he also says that the industry is now open to experimentation and big-budget projects like Robot are collaborating with studios in LA and so that will bring some great effects to Indian cinema.

Director Sujoy Ghosh is also very positive. Aladin has captured the fantasy element is such a great way. The effects that we have used are on par with those in Hollywood and also at less than one-tenth the price.

The fact is one can hardly even blame the poor filmmakers. Most of the Western successes were based on hugely successful franchises: JR Tolkiens books had been around for more than 50 years,CS Lewis,a contemporary of Tolkien,wrote his Narnia series around the same time; Star Wars debuted in 1972 and by the time George Lucas got around to making his prequels in 1999,the space opera had had almost 30 years to get established. With such a wealth of a universe to work within,and with almost three generations of fans to rely upon for support,no wonder the Tolkien and Narnia movies debuted with such hype.

The situation couldnt be more different in India. Sure we have similar heroes and epic stories the problem is,theyre all what we would call mythological epicswhile the Ramayana and Mahabharata give one a wealth of characters and stories to pick up,the audiences always know theyre watching something that was once serialised on Doordarshan every Sunday morning. Not an instant crowd puller.

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cinema